Niigata Prefecture

Akiyamago 秋山郷 On the western flank of Mount Naeba there are twelve tiny villages that are tucked into a rugged and remote valley. The area is known as Akiyamago. Even though it is fairly close to Tokyo the area does not see a lot of pressure, plus there are numerous rivers … Read More

A few weeks ago I wrote a guest article for Discover Tenkara about the bamboo rod Go Ishii and I have been making under the supervision of Yamano-san. If you missed the article you can check it out here. Well this past week I travelled back up to Kawaguchi with … Read More

The Silver Grass Autumn Flower Every year in late August the head high grass called susuki (すすき) blooms en-mass. The soft gold grass “flowers” are quite beautiful despite their lackluster coloring. It is always a little sad to see the susuki blooming though as it signals the rapidly approaching end to … Read More

On the edge of Gunma and Niigata Prefecture lies an area that many refer to as “Little Alaska”. While there are numerous jagged mountains scraping the heavens, the king of the area is without a doubt the majestic Mount Tanigawa (Tanigawadake) but it is also known as the Mountain of Death. Tanigawadake has … Read More

A few months back Tenkara Fisher published this great interview with Kazuya Shimoda. Kazuya talked a lot about headwaters Tenkara deep within the mountains of Japan. Kazuya said “it [was] necessary to have stream side lifestyle skills… such as knowledge of Sansai mountain vegetables, mushroom gathering, and fire making skills” if you want … Read More